The Volunteer, September 2000

Vol. XXII, No. 4

Fall 2000

The ALBA Archive Has a New Home! After years of struggling and thousands of hours of meetings and phone calls, ALBA has found a new home for the archive, where people will have easy access to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade documents and photographs. Story page 4

FLASH!

As we go to press we learn from Bay Area Post Commander Dave Smith that the San Francisco Port Commission unanimously passed a resolution to place a memorial to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Vets at the new Harry Bridges Plaza, in front of the historic old Ferry Building at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Details to follow in next issue.

New memorial to IBs in Spain, page 9 How Len Levenson got to Spain, page 10 A song for Eddie “Deyo,” page 11 Spanish restoration of Ebro battle sites, page 12 Chicago raises money for Ed Balchowsky, page 17 Irish monuments to the Connolly Column, page 18

The town of Corbera remembers the Ebro Offensive, page 9

Letters Dear Editor, Does anyone have any information about, or did anyone know, Michael and Joseph Feller? They were brothers from Manhattan’s Lower East Side and fought in the Lincoln Brigade. Joseph was killed in Spain, Michael was killed later in Germany. They were my father’s older brothers; uncles I never met after whom I’m named. I would appreciate any information or suggestions regarding where to look for information. Michael Joseph Feller [email protected]

Lou Gordon (left), John and Katia Jacobs, at the monument to Edward “Deyo” Jacobs, who died in Spain.

Dear Editor, I am seeking info re: my father, Jerry Indra. He fought in Spain with the Brigade. I am very interested in what happened to him in the years following his return from Spain. I know that the FBI threatened to deport my mother (a Russian-born Jew without papers!) if he did not assist them in various activities abroad. I know he was sent to Central America on several occasions. However, over the years he only dropped a few tidbits and eventually died without having really told his story. Please e-mail me with any info or any advice on next steps to take in my search. I can be reached at: [email protected] Gary Indra

she had his name inscribed on the Deyo monument just before Christmas and when our four children and their children came we dedicated it. Lou Gordon, a Lincoln vet and good friend and a wonderful harmonica player, told this little audience something of the war and played “The Peatbog Soldier.” Our daughter Kate, a singer-songwriter, played her song “Eddie Went to Spain,” about the uncle she never knew. (Her son, born in March of this year, is named after him.) It was a lovely little ceremony; a way for the old people present to remember and for the young ones to learn. I enclose some snapshots of the occasion. John Jacobs 114 South Street, Highland, New York See Eddie Went to Spain, page 11

Dear Editor, We never knew what happened to my brother, Edward Deyo Jacobs, known as “Deyo,” until you published (Vol. II, No. 3, 1979) a wonderful piece by Art Landis, “In Memoriam: Deyo Jacobs,” telling of their time together as observers and how he died. Deyo was an artist of the International Brigade and some of his drawings were reproduced with your article. At the end, he was a mapper and observer in an outpost at the front during the great fascist counteroffensive. In the retreat that followed, having injured his leg, it became impossible for him to go on. He sank down under a tree and his friend, Doug Taylor, a hero if there ever was one, stayed to care for him. As the Landis article concludes, “It is presumed that like so many tens of others, they were taken finally and summarily executed.” Mr. Landis’ article ended many years of our agonized uncertainty about what had happened to Deyo. For years, my wife Katia had urged that Edward should be accorded a place of honor in the Deyo cemetery plot in New Paltz, New York, where his parents and French Huguenot ancestors are buried. So a few years ago

More letters on page 20

Erratum The review of Abe Osheroff’s new video, “Art and the Struggle for Freedom,” in our last issue was written by Tony Geist. 2 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

The

Volunteer Journal of the

Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade an ALBA publication 799 Broadway, Rm. 227 New York, NY 10003 (212) 674-5552 Editorial Board Peter Carroll • Leonard Levenson Fraser Ottanelli • Abe Smorodin Design Production Richard Bermack Editorial Assistance Nancy Van Zwalenburg Submission of Manuscripts Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk. E-mail: [email protected]

Brigadier News

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area annual picnic at Live Oak Park was attended by about 40 or 50 vets, family and associates. The picnic featured barbecued chicken, prepared according to the special VALB secret recipe by Corine Thornton, recently returned from a demonstration against the School of the Americas. The chicken was cooked by “master chief” and Spanish Civil War aeronautic authority Tom Sarbough.

Bill Sennett and Dave Smith (top), Judy Montell joins the party, and Betsy Brown enjoys the food (middle), while Anthony Toney sketches Hilda Roberts (bottom).

New York

Vets March. On October 21, in New York City, Veterans of the Lincoln Brigade (Martin Balter, left, and Moe Fishman, right) and their friends joined over 1,500 other protesters opposed to the continued presence of the U.S. Navy on the island of Vieques. They marched from Columbus Circle to the “Intrepid” aircraft carrier museum on the Hudson River.

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ALBA Collection Moving to NYU’s Tamiment Library By Peter Carroll

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n the most important decision in its 22-year history, ALBA’s Board of Governors voted in September to transfer its entire Spanish Civil War archive holdings to New York University’s Tamiment Library near Washington Square. The move assures that the evergrowing archive will be processed by professional librarians and made available to more researchers and readers than ever before. In addition, the relocation will permit closer cooperation between ALBA and NYU’s King Juan Carlos I Center, which promotes public programs relating to Spain and the United States. NYU’s purchase of the collection also ensures the creation of a permanent endowment fund to sustain ALBA’s diverse activities long into the future. The ALBA collection, which will maintain its distinct name within the library’s holdings, consists of over 400 linear feet of original research material, such as letters, diaries, journals, and official records, as well as the office materials of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Besides such paper documents, the collection encompasses about 5,000 photographs, over 100 Spanish Civil War posters, and miscellaneous historical objects and memorabilia. ALBA’s unique microfilm holdings of the Moscow Archives will accompany the archive to its new location. The move also includes duplicate copies of books and pamphlets, which will join the extensive holdings of the NYU libraries. The decision to transfer the archive from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, reflected the extensive growth of the collection in recent years, which required considerable processing, indexing, and storage. Facing space and budgetary 4 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

constraints, Brandeis librarians recommended in 1998 that ALBA seek a larger depository. That proposal launched more than two years of negotiations between ALBA’s executive committee and various libraries interested in acquiring the collection. Among the other institutions that seriously contested for the acquisition were Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and the University of California at San Diego. Although both university libraries presented good offers for handling the archival material, the Board of Governors believed that the New York location would provide the most support, both for users of the collection and for ALBA’s other projects. NYU’s King Juan Carlos I Center, located just a block from the Tamiment Library on Washington

Square South, already co- sponsors the annual ALBA-Bill Susman Lecture and will continue to do so in the future. The agreement also provides for support of ALBA’s hosting of the annual veterans’ reunion in New York City, as well as other kinds of cooperative activities relating to the Lincoln Brigade and the Spanish Civil War. Continued on page 6

What is ALBA? By Fraser Ottanelli

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braham Lincoln Brigade Archives: the name sounds academic and even slightly austere, but behind it is a vibrant organization that works to preserve and perpetuate a legacy of solidarity, defense of democratic values, and internationalism. The organization’s complex nature was clearly exemplified by its decision to invite Baltasar Garzón, the judge who tried to bring the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to trial, to deliver the third ALBA-Bill Susman lecture and to speak at the annual VALB-ALBA fundraiser at the Borough of Manhattan Community College last April. Judge Garzón was not in the trenches of Jarama, nor in the freezing cold of Teruel or at the crossing of the Ebro, but through his

actions he has upheld the same basic principles of human decency and dignity in defense of which hundreds of thousands fought and died in Spain over 60 years ago. Although Judge Garzón was born almost 20 years after Franco and other fascist generals took up arms against the democratically elected Spanish government, by indicting a felonious rebel general for crimes against humanity, he sought both to punish a hideous criminal and to send a message to all current and want-to-be dictators that one day they will be held accountable for their crimes. ALBA has good reason to feel proud. Bringing Judge Garzón to New York was not merely the culmination of a successful series of outreach activContinued on page 6

The ALBA Collection: A Record of LifeLong Commitments to Social Justice by Cary Nelson

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f you laid all the boxes containing the ALBA archive end-to-end they would stretch some 400 feet. Since some of those boxes contain thousands of documents, the total amount of material is, to say the least, considerable. There are more than 5,000 black and white photographs from the Spanish Civil War, perhaps 10,000 pages of letters written home by American volunteers, over 100 fullcolor Spanish Civil War posters, and of course tens of thousands of microfilm copies of documents from the original International Brigades archive assembled in Spain and now in Moscow. Then there are many unique individual items—from Bill Bailey’s rifle to uniform patches to wartime diaries and drawings to original film footage. The reference to “boxes” is worth keeping in mind, because it helps alert people to what to expect if they visit the collection. An archive, in short, is not a museum; it is a place that stores objects and documents for research. It would be wonderful, of course, to have a museum quality display space attached to the archive. Indeed some archives have one or more exhibition galleries. The dramatic character of many of our posters and photographs certainly merits a permanent educational gallery that people could visit any time they were in New York, but that’s not what we have yet. The ALBA archive was founded with a major contribution of documents from VALB and photographs from several vets. The VALB papers, interestingly, included relatively little from the war itself. They focused primarily on the postwar decades. But the original VALB papers are very rich indeed. There is correspondence not only from vets, but also from the many people throughout the world who were involved in the continuing antifascist struggle. Some of the correspondents are famous—Albert

Einstein, Lillian Hellman, Langston Hughes, and others. There were also large numbers of vets active in the organization. After World War II ended, anticommunist hysteria overtook American politics, and the character of the struggle changed. One may find a powerful documentary record of McCarthyism in the VALB papers. As time passed, the archive became more well known, and many vets wanted a secure place to leave the record of a lifelong commitment to social justice; donations steadily increased the size of the collection. The VALB papers were supplemented by major donations from a large number of vets. These individual collections are stored under the name of each volunteer. Thus we have the Steve Nelson Papers, the Edward Barsky Papers, the Carl Geiser Papers, the Harry Fisher Papers, and many others. Substantial collections of papers from other vets are housed at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington. More recently, the ALBA collection has benefitted from several large additions. The Fredericka Martin Papers, for example, gather together her decades of research on the medical services in Spain. The single largest addition to the ALBA archive is more than 100 reels of microfilm and 2,000 photographic negatives purchased from the Center for the Study of Documents of Recent History in Moscow. The existence of this immense collection, long thought to be lost, was revealed barely a decade ago. As a result of a truly major fundraising campaign, we acquired copies of the complete wartime record of the Lincoln Battalion. It is a major understatement to say that the microfilms have only begun to be studied. The sheer volume of documents—from official

letters to the personal papers left behind by volunteers who died—is nearly overwhelming. Students and scholars will be working with these microfilms for many decades. None of us can count ourselves as experts in their contents. There is still the need, moreover, to acquire additional materials from Moscow. There is information about American volunteers in the records of other battalions. The photographs we obtained, for example, deal only with the Lincolns in training and in the field. Copies of photographs focusing on Albacete, Barcelona, and Madrid, among other cities, remain to be purchased. There are important documents about American volunteers in the American Communist Party records in Moscow as well. Just as valuable are the personal collections that individual vets and their friends and families still have all across the country. We have never looked at a single personal collection without finding unique and important documents and publications we had never seen before. ALBA needs, therefore, to continue its collecting efforts for many years to come. In the meantime, we hope to develop more detailed finding aids to help students, scholars, and family members gain easier access to our present holdings. From the original VALB papers through to our most recent acquisitions, an important story of more than half a century of progressive work is documented in compelling detail. It is a story that has only begun to be told. Despite a number of books derived from ALBA’s collection, only a small percentage of the archive has been published. We welcome your support in all these efforts. Cary Nelson is a vice-chair of ALBA’s Board of Governors and a professor of English at the University of Illinois.

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ALBA

focus its energies on expanding its outreach activities. In this sense ALBA is a unique and “fighting” archive. While helping to preserve the records of the men and women who fought fascism in Spain for future generations of writers, scholars, filmmakers, and poets, ALBA strives at the same time to make those records and that legacy an inspiring and vital resource for generations of students, researchers, and activists to come.

Continued from page 4 ities over many years, but also an important watershed in the history of the organization. When ALBA was founded by a group of veterans in the mid-1970s, their primary concern was to recover and preserve the documentation on the U.S. participation in the Spanish Civil War. As they aged, men and women who had devoted their lives to helping shape the course of history had the foresight to realize the significance of preserving the record of their activities for future generations. Assembling an archive was not a simple task, but the willingness of archivist Victor Berch, then chief of special collections at Brandeis, to house such a collection got the ball rolling. The effort also required the support of veterans and their families, as well as the generous financial contributions of hundreds of supporters. In the end, however, all these efforts paid off. As Cary Nelson describes in his article, today the ALBA archive is one of the world’s most important and recognized repositories of documents, photographs, videos, and posters on the International Brigades, and the organization serves as a model for similar organizations in other countries. With its preservation efforts well underway, ALBA began to increase its outreach activities. By the mid-1990s

6 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

Fraser Ottanelli, vice-chair of ALBA, teaches U.S. history at the University of South Florida and is writing a history of Italian Americans.

ALBA Moving the composition of the organization began to change as a younger generation began to play a greater role within the Board of Governors. This new cohort came from a range of backgrounds, including educators, filmmakers, writers, and activists. All, however, combined a history of personal involvement in the great social struggles since the 1960s with a shared determination to expand ALBA’s educational efforts and to ensure that the values of the “premature antifascists” who fought in Spain would remain in the public domain. Readers of The Volunteer are familiar with the multitude of activities promoted by ALBA: the ongoing acquisition of materials from the Moscow archives, the two (and soon to be three) traveling exhibitions, the award-winning web page, the national prize for the best student essays on the Spanish Civil War, an electronic discussion group and newsletter, the production of the VALB-ALBA annual events, and finally the role it played in the dedication of the first outdoor monuments in this country to the Lincoln Brigade in Seattle, Washington, and Madison, Wisconsin. As we enter the new millennium with the archive established, safe and under the expert care of the staff at the Tamiment Library at NYU, ALBA can

Continued from page 4 According to the terms of ALBA’s agreements, the physical removal of the collection will occur by the end of 2000. During the next year, NYU will inventory the collection and begin to make it available to researchers. Brandeis University will retain duplicate copies of portions of the collection, including part of the Moscow Archives microfilm, its own holdings of Spanish Civil War posters (donated to Brandeis prior to the creation of ALBA), and its library of books and other publications. ALBA’s discussions of the transfer provoked intense participation among the Board of Governors. Issues involved not only geographical location and the quality of library services, but also the implications for the future of ALBA as an outreach organization. Whatever one’s preferences, the Board recognized that the final decision would shape ALBA’s role for many years. Of the 26 board members who voiced their choice, 22 supported NYU’s proposal. (For more details, see articles page 4-7..) Peter Carroll, chair of ALBA’s Board of Governors, is the author of The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Tamiment Welcomes ALBA Collection by Gail Malmgreen

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nce it is moved to New York University, the ALBA collection will become part of one of the nation’s oldest and largest research collections devoted exclusively to the study of labor and radical movements. The original collection, which now comprises the Tamiment archives at NYU, began as the library of the Rand School of Social Science, the first workers’ school in the United States, on 15th Street in New York City in 1906. The earliest materials collected (books, periodicals, pamphlets, government documents and original correspondence) reflected the school’s close ties with the Socialist Party. Eugene V. Debs made substantial donations from his personal library, as did other Socialist notables and Rand School lecturers such as Charles Beard, Scott Nearing, Bertrand Russell and John Dewey. In 1956, with the demise of the Rand School, the library was reorganized, renamed the Tamiment Institute Library, and opened to the general public. After a few years of independent existence, research demands on the collection became so heavy, and the need to expand its holdings so pressing, that an agreement was concluded whereby the Tamiment Library became a special collection of New York University Libraries. The transfer of the library to its new home on the 10th Floor of NYU’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library ushered in a period of tremendous growth. In 1977 the creation of a sister institution, the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, made the library a focal point for collecting trade-union records, especially those of the New York metropolitan area. Today the holdings of Tamiment/Wagner include some 25,000 books, 6,000 periodical titles, more than 300 manuscript collections (reflecting all tendencies of the Left and both national and local tradeunion records, as well as feminist, anti-war, anti-racist, and environmen-

tal movements), 3,500 hours of audio tape, roughly a million pamphlets, leaflets and clippings, and related collections of posters, graphics, videos and artifacts. Tamiment/Wagner materials, in all formats and media, are entered in NYU’s on-line catalogue, accessible through the World Wide Web. The Tamiment welcomes more than 3,000 researchers and visitors a

Flynn, Saul Mills, Alexander Bittleman, Morris Schappes, Virginia Gardner, Hugo Gellert and many others provide valuable resources for researchers interested in U.S. campaigns in support of the Spanish Republic. We also hold several small collections of personal papers donated by individual Lincoln vets, dozens of oral history interviews with veterans collected as part of the Oral History of

year, and provides facilities for conferences, lectures, film screenings, book parties and memorial meetings. It also houses the editorial offices of the journals Labor History and Radical History Review. Staffed by eight full-time and 12 part-time and graduate student workers, the Tamiment maintains its proud tradition of being open to the public without restriction. Generous support from NYU’s Computer Systems personnel, cataloguing staff, state-of-the-art Preservation Department and photo labs ensure that materials are made available for research and reproduction under the highest standards of archival security. As a major repository for the study of U.S. labor and the Left in the 20th century, Tamiment provides the broad historical context for specialized work on the ALBA collections. More specifically, Tamiment/Wagner collections such as the records of the Transport Workers Union of America; District 65, UAW; and the Greater New York CIO Council, and the papers of activists Elizabeth Gurley

the American Left project, as well as posters, leaflets, newsletters, buttons, photographs, drawings, and musical recordings produced by organizations promoting Aid to Spain. Interestingly, Tamiment also owns a small collection of 30 Spanish Civil War posters, none of which duplicates any in the ALBA archive. Our entire poster collection has been digitized and is available to researchers on CD-ROM. We look forward to welcoming the many visitors from around the world who will want to use ALBA materials and related items from our own holdings. The ALBA archive could not have found a more appropriate and receptive home. Everyone at Tamiment looks forward to a long and productive partnership. For more information on the Tamiment Library, visit its web site at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/researc h/tam. Gail Malmgreen is archivist of the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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THE ALBA BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY PROJECT By Chris Brooks

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ne of ALBA’s most important research efforts is the ALBA Biographical Dictionary Project, aiming to identify the names and basic biographical information of every U.S. volunteer who participated in the Spanish Civil War. Initiated by the late Lincoln veteran Adolph “Buster” Ross, the project has been moving along under my auspices for the past five years. In 1993 Ross produced a comprehensive list of the names of the American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, a product of eight years of active research and correspondence.

Currently there is a folder containing clippings, notes, surveys and photographs for each volunteer. In addition, there is a computer file for each volunteer. Each entry has a cover sheet, which provides pertinent facts of the volunteer’s life in bullet- point format. This information includes the volunteer’s vital information: name, date and place of birth, and date of death. It also includes personal information: any aliases or nicknames, education, vocation, marital status, prior military service, and service in World War II. Of course, there is also information related to the volunteer’s service in Spain: date and vessel on which he or she departed for Europe, party affiliation, brief history on service in Spain, and date of return to America or date of death in Spain. There are also notes on sources for photographs and archival sources.

Bob Reed Steck’s Prisoner Historical Commission and Bob Reed’s Pacific Northwest Project. Jyrki Juusela contributed his biographical sketches of Finnish-American volunteers. Matti Mattson kindly translated Juusela’s

The project’s goal is to be a resource to individuals who are conducting research about the American volunteers. When it is completed, the dictionary will provide researchers an introduction and overview of materials available on each volunteer. Adolph “Buster” Ross Ross organized the finances, and I came on board as the research coordinator. Victor Berch, ALBA’s archivist, has been an invaluable asset since the project commenced. The project was initially funded as the Adolph Ross Project; however, when ALBA generously offered to oversee the finances, the project was christened with its current title. The project’s goal is to be a resource to individuals who are conducting research about the American volunteers. When it is completed, the dictionary will provide researchers an introduction and overview of materials available on each volunteer. 8 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

In an effort to make this material more accessible, I am currently converting this information into an electronic database. The final product is intended to include a photograph album along with the cover sheets. Additionally, whenever possible there will be an extended biographical sketch. I anticipate presenting my initial draft of the final product at the 2002 ALBA board meeting. Concurrent with the ALBA Biographical Dictionary Project, there is an on-going effort to collect prior biographical writings about individual volunteers. Already many researchers have contributed to this project. ALBA received biographical sketches from Carl Geiser and Bob

work. John Kraljic contributed his research on the South Slav volunteers. Many other researchers, including Richard S. Allen, Dale Hopper, James Carmody, Myron Momryk, Ted Watts, Jim Richardson, and Len and Nancy Tsou have graciously shared their research with me. Next on my agenda is further research in the rich archives of the State Department, which contain a wealth of information on the Lincolns. I plan to complete this part of my investigation by the end of the year. Although the research is not yet finished, individuals wishing to contact me with additional biographical information can do so by e-mail at [email protected].

By David Leach

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he town of Corbera d’Ebro in southern Catalonia is doubly significant for veterans of the XVth International Brigade. It was here, during the retreats of early 1938, that remnants of the Brigade assembled and were reorganized for the attempt to stop the fascists breaking through to the Mediterranean. The following July, on the first day of the Ebro Offensive, and with the river successfully traversed, the Brigade was ordered to drive on westwards, inland toward Corbera and Gandesa. Two months of bitter and bloody fighting in the area ensued, culminating in late September with the final battles of the Lincoln, Mac Pap and British Battalions. To commemorate those events, veterans from many International Brigades, together with families, friends and local people, met in Corbera on Saturday, October 14, for the inauguration of a memorial to the volunteers who left their homes to defend democracy in Spain. On a breezy, overcast morning, people gathered in the small square outside Corbera’s town hall. A canopy of red and yellow striped Catalan flags belonged not to friends of the International Brigades, but to farmers protesting about their treatment at the hands of the police during an earlier demonstration against fuel prices. A Catalan government delegate was on his way to the event, and the farmers clearly intended to make him aware of their feelings on the matter. The day began officially with the signing in the mayor’s office of a “Book of Honor.” Mayor Jose Luis Gamero introduced a number of dignitaries, including government delegate Cesar Puig and Colonel Louis Blezy, a leader of the French International Brigade Veterans’ Association. Gradually, as might be expected, the Brigadistas made their way upstairs and into the crowded office to sign the book. One source estimates

that some 40 veterans were present in Corbera, coming from the U.S., France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Austria, and Ireland. Whatever the exact number, it included an impressive and welcome contingent of Spaniards who served with the International Brigades. As people filtered downstairs and back into the Square, a local band began to play traditional Catalan music. After a poignant rendition of the Catalan anthem “Els Segadors” (The Harvesters), the band led the crowd, bearing flags of the Republic and Catalonia, out of the square and up a narrow lane toward the old town of Corbera. The old town, or “Poble Vell” in Catalan, was substantially destroyed during the Ebro battles and then abandoned at the end of the conflict. Today its yellow stone ruins loom above the new Corbera, a stark and permanent witness to the protracted fascist assault on the people of Spain. Up on a ledge, in sight of the old church with its artillery-scarred steeple, and with dramatic views across the valley, the inauguration began. The International Brigades memorial in Corbera consists of five imposing iron columns, representing the continents from which the volunteers traveled to Spain. The tops of the columns are reflective and, with the sun in position, can be seen from the mountains east and south where so much fighting occurred. The sculptor, Jose Luis Terraza, said that he had worked on many projects, but none

had made him feel so emotional. The morning cloud cover gave way to an afternoon of blue sky, warm sun, and a cool autumnal breeze. The mayor and the government delegate both spoke, while Colonel Blezy delivered the main address. Speaking in French, he gave an overview of the causes and course of the Spanish Civil War. He explained that the tribute in Corbera to the International Brigades was above all a “tribute to the Republican Army and the Spanish People.” He also referred to the recent violent police response to the protesting Catalan farmers and emphasized that fascism has to be fought every day. A crowd estimated to be around 300 stood below the speakers and in the lanes leading away from the old town. With the speeches over, people began to descend into new Corbera, making their way to the local Wine Co-Operative for a celebratory tasting. The serious and reflective mood of the inauguration gave way to an atmosphere bordering on Fiesta. Lunch was held outside at the Corbera social club. More than 700 people, according to ticket sales, sat at long rows of trestle tables enjoying tapas, paella, and jugs of local white wine. Afterwards, there was an informal presentation. The Brigadistas and inaugural speakers were each given an inscribed wood plaque, inset with a stone from the ruins of the old town. The band began to play and singing erupted spontaneously. THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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The Road to Spain By Len Levenson

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hile my journey to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was an unusual one, its route was determined by the world-wide economic and social crises between 1929 and 1934 that spawned fascism in Italy and Germany and its Spanish offshoot. In the Spring of 1937, I was the only remaining one of three clandestine Communists who were fingerprint classifiers in the Identification Division of the FBI. We all were transplanted New Yorkers who had been students at CCNY. My comrades, Robert (Bob) Colver and Lee Kogan, had earned BA degrees and I the 2-year prelaw requirement to an NYU law degree. We shared an apartment and a comradeship that was personal as well as political. Bob and Lee worked to build a United Federal Workers union among the fingerprint classifiers. I took no part in this campaign so as not to foreclose the possibility of becoming a special agent when I reached the minimum age of 25. As might have been expected, the organizing drive, after enrolling several dozen members, was abruptly terminated by disclosure and wholesale dismissals. My two comrades managed to escape the union-breaking purge and transferred to civil service jobs in the New York City office of the Social Security Administration. Bob Colver became the first president of the New York chapter of the Social Security United Federal Workers Union of the CIO. In April of 1937, I learned that Bob had volunteered to go to Spain. By that time, I had become convinced, through a number of incidents, that my FBI “career” wasn’t likely to be long-lived. I felt that I could make a 10 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

competent soldier. I was a fair athlete newspapers and books. The experiand, thanks to an FBI pistol club ence was a crash course in maritime taught by a G-man who was a nationorganizing battles, portside and onal pistol champion, I knew I was an the-seas, with scabs, goons and above average marksman. I placed my union-busting police. The food pro“Spain” request through the necessary vided by our Beziers farmer- hosts Party channels and it was granted. was mostly the delicious local cheese I left for Spain in early June of and bread, washed down with the 1937 on the S.S. Britannic among a regional red wine. Our communicacontingent of 30 IB volunteers. I was tion with them was mainly through one of the three group leaders on my very deficient high-school French. board; Al Kaufman and Blaine Owen We were trucked out of Beziers were the others. Al’s group of nine one night to join a contingent of 30 or were seamen, militant members of the so for the torturous climb into Spain. NMU (National Maritime Union). All When, at daybreak, we ended our were veterans of rough union-orgaascent at the ancient Figueras fortress, nizing campaigns on the east-coast our military indoctrination began. We waterfronts. One of them, Joe Bianca, were divested of the goodies, the camwas called by Milt Wolff “the best soleras, compasses, binoculars and other dier in the Brigade.” Bianca and Al, close buddies, were killed in the Ebro retreat of May 1938, a fate shared by Bob Colver at Gandesa in July 1938. Our on-board secrecy was quickly dissipated, but we reached Paris without incident. After a few days we entrained southward to Perpignan, where we were Len Levenson (standing on left) with fellow New York regrouped for University students and members of the International dispersed shelter- Brigades in Spain. ing while awaiting the climb up the Pyrenees military accouterments that we had into Spain. I wound up with Al, Joe been counseled to bring from home, and the other seamen, literally without any hint of their destined colcooped-up in the attic of a Beziers lectivization. After a few days, we farmhouse, a dozen or so miles northboarded freight cars headed south for east of Perpignan. That sojourn lasted the International Brigade base in the the better part of a week. Our waking La Mancha province of Albacete, hours were consumed by my compan- about 150 miles southeast of Madrid. ions’ reminiscences, which fully jibed with the labor legends I knew from

Eddie Went To Spain a song by Kate Jacobs The following song was written by folk singer Kate Jacobs, the daughter of John Jacobs, about his brother Eddie “Deyo” Jacobs, who died in Spain. (See letter, page 2.)

Hudson Valley apple farm, 1934. Oldest son is out of there, wants to see some more. Down to New York City for politics and art, Cartoons in the subway and a Violet in his heart. Hey hey hey. Everyone’s a Communist, love is in the air. No one’s got a nickel, nobody even cares. Franco’s killing farmers, they all want to fight. He can’t even tell his sister when he stows away one night. Hey hey hey. Eddie went to Spain. Eddie and Doug Taylor never were apart. Hunkered down in trenches, talking about art. Found a book of Goya, tucked it in their pack. Sketching in the twilight, bullets at their back. Hey hey hey. Eddie went to Spain. Eddie was a soldier, and he was very tough, But when he hurt his ankle he could not keep up. Sat down by an olive tree, Taylor by his side. Waited to be captured but we think it’s where they died. Hey hey hey. Eddie went to Spain. Eddie’s little brother is now 75. Often has a dream that Eddie’s still alive. Sees him in the Village, all at once he knows Eddie came back, he just never came home. Hey hey hey. Eddie went to Spain. Eddie went to Spain. Eddie went to Spain.

Eddie “Deyo” Jacobs

©Kate Jacobs, reproduced with author’s permission. The song is available on the CDHydrangea, which is on the Bar/None record label. It can be purchased on-line at Amazon.com or by sending a check for $15 to: Kate Jacobs PO Box 5128 Hoboken, NJ 07030

THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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Spaniards Fight to Preserve Ebro Battle Sites By Robert Coale

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o veterans, friends and students of the International Brigades, the Ebro campaign brings to mind place names such as the Sierra Pandols and Cavalls, Hill 666, the Pimple, the Valley of Death, Gandesa, Villalba and Corbera. The Lincolns, Mac-Paps and British fought in all of these places at one time or another in the thickest combat. Sixty years later, much of the rural landscape has remained unchanged; the vineyards, olive groves and terraced fields are still the dominant features. Despite the lack of physical change to the area, locating these historic places requires determination.

An existing trench in Sierra Cavalls overlooking the Gandesa-Corbera Valley 12 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

The completed restoration of the 1938 XV IB monument in Sierra Cavalls, overlooking the Gandesa-Corbera Valley The grave of John Cookson, one of the few identified American burial sites in Spain, is a case in point. Getting to the town of Marsa is easy enough, but finding the secluded grave requires the assistance of locals.

An I.B. Monument from 1938 The oldest monument in the area, curiously enough, is a loyalist one dedicated to the Spanish and international dead of the 15th I.B. It bears 37 names of men killed in combat from April to September 1938, along with the promises “We will avenge you” and “We will triumph.” Constructed late in the battle by brigade engineers, it is located in the Sierra Pandols, at the opposite end from Hill 666, in a slight valley used as a rest and first aid station. Faring much better than a monument on the Jarama battlefield destroyed by Franco shortly after the defeat of the Republic, this one has survived, known but to locals for decades and protected by its inaccessible location. In recent years its deteriorated condition has been cause for concern and the object of increasing interest. This past summer, through a Spanish internet discussion group dedicated to the Civil War, volunteers

proposed to restore the monument. Faced with silence from the authorities, Angel Archilla, leader of the restoration project, addressed his concerns to the regional newspaper Diari de Tarragona. The mayor of Pinell de Brai, confronted with increased public pressure, finally granted official permission to restore the monument under supervision of the town specialist. Over the weekend of September 30, a group of 15 volunteers completed extensive repairs that included building a retaining wall, repairing erosion and vandalism damage, reinscribing names, solidifying its base and clearing the area of undergrowth. They endured difficult working conditions in order to restore the historic memory of the International Brigades on the very hills they once defended.

Development Has Destroyed Some Monuments Unfortunately, this restoration is the exception and not the rule. Many other sites that were silently preserved over the years by the local population were lost to development once there was no one left to remember their importance. Such is the case of “Hort de Cardoneta” near Mora de Ebro, final resting place for loyalist pontoon

engineers killed during the bridging operations. In the postwar period, the owner of the orchard kept the area untouched. After the land passed out of his hands, however, it was paved over and developed as part of new municipal boat launching facilities. Diverse and complex reasons have thwarted efforts to preserve the battlefield from a historical perspective. Franco’s 40-year dictatorship, with its triumphant interpretation of the battle, was an insurmountable obstacle. The transition to democracy, although politically successful, consciously avoided the polemic subject of the Civil War. Fortunately, however, times are a-changing and concern for the historical importance of the area is growing.

Wind Power Project Threatens Preservation Plan Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the Ebro offensive, a project was commissioned by the Catalonian government to study the possibilities of preserving key battle sites, as well as making them accessible to the general public and providing educational information. The plan, conceived by doctoral students specializing in historical geography at the University of Barcelona under Professor Xavier Hernández, has recently encountered serious opposition. Over the past year, an ominous threat to the entire area has been brewing in the form of the regional government’s planned installation of wind power generators. The energy project, which includes the Sierra Pandols and Cavalls from the town of Pinell de Brai to Gandesa and Corbera, would transform the area into one of the largest wind power centers in the world. This would involve installing 60 to 80 giant towers supporting propeller blades 54 meters in diameter on the crests of the hills, as well as hundreds of kilometers of underground cables, access roads for heavy equipment and relay stations. This construction would radically and permanently transform the landscape and erase prime examples of remaining loyalist and rebel positions on the Pandols, Cavalls and surrounding mountains.

Hill 666 The infamous Hill 666 as viewed from the fascist position on Hill 705 Many local councils have already signed agreements with the firm that hopes to install the power stations. Economic concerns are paramount in this remote agricultural region, where officials are captivated by the promised subsidies and indemnities. Most of the area was declared a “zone of natural interest” years ago, a fact that has been ignored by both government and developers. The area is thus trapped between two diametrically

The grave of John Cookson opposed projects sponsored by the same regional government: the Generalitat de Catalunya. Faced with economic opposition, the proponents of the preservation plan have begun a direct action campaign. Public demonstrations have been held and protestors are present every time the president of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, visits the region. The preservationists stress the larger economic benefits that would

be generated by high-quality cultural and historic tourism over the long term in place of the short-term economic fix and ecological catastrophe promised by the wind power station. In order to participate in building grass-roots support, Edmon Castell, Lluís Falcó, Xavier Herandez, Joan Santacana, Joan Carles Luque and Oriol Junqueras published their project as a book, for the moment only in Catalan: The Battle of the Ebro; history, landscape and heritage. They tirelessly present the book to the media and public throughout the region. It is a brief history, an explanation of the most important sites, and a detailed plan of organization of a natural and historic park. The latter would include a visitors’ center, exhibition hall and well-marked discovery routes to selected sites to allow the public to grasp the importance of the battle. Their efforts are inspired by such successful historical parks as Verdun, the Somme and the Normandy beaches in France, and even Gettysburg. The initiative, dubbed WEB-E38 (Workshops on European BattlefieldsEbro1938), has been integrated into an international network that strives to create educational experiences from the past. The commitment shown by these students and professors is remarkable and unwavering, even in the face of such strong economic and political pressure. continued on page 16 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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Restoration of the Monolit h t o International Brigade in the Sierra By Jesus Castillo

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n August 3, 1938, during the battles of the Ebro, the XV International Brigade occupied the heights of Hill 666 in the Pandols range. For 21 days International and Spanish soldiers withstood heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. Finally as they retreated from their positions, they left behind a small monolith in memory of their comrades who had fallen in Spain. The monument was erected by the XV Brigade’s Company of Sappers, under the command of Captain Egan Schmidt (Misha) from Letonia, who would die in fighting in the Pandols on August 19, 1938. Sixty-two years have passed since the monolith was raised and, remarkably, it is one of the few monuments erected by the International Brigades during the war that is known to have survived the Franco years. The monument is made of cement and rests on top of three steps. Its sides and the base are inscribed with different slogans and the names of combatants killed in the Aragon and Ebro retreats. The monument, however, showed signs of deterioration due to weather and perhaps vandalism. Some of the names were nearly illegible. The retaining wall holding it up had crumbled, increasing the danger that the monolith might fall, making it impossible to salvage. Over the summer, Angel Archilla of Villafranca del Penedés (Barcelona) sent a message to the chat list on the Spanish Civil War ([email protected]) proposing an expedition to restore the monument and rescue it from oblivion. No one could have anticipated the overwhelming response that resulted from this appeal. On Sunday, March 5, 2000 , a sunny, clear day, 22 volunteers came from all over Spain: Guadarrama, Talavera de la Reina, Lérida, Collbato, Centelles, Ripollet, 14 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

Villafranca del Penedés, Barcelona, La Cenia, Reus, Corbera d’Ebre, and Gandesa. Timed to coincide with the excursion to Pandols, another group of members from the list made a symbolic excursion to a mountain on the island of Angel Archilla Lanzarote (Canaries) to commemorate their participation in this act of restoring historical memory. Accompanied by Jaume Escude, a member of CEBE (Center for the Study of the Battle of the Ebro) in Gandesa, we followed the road from Pinell de Brai to Gandesa, and from there immediately turned onto the trailhead that climbs to the monolith. The trail traverses a canyon with an amazing creekbed, which the Lincolns nicknamed Ping Pong. It was Hill 666, where fascist bullets ricocheted wildly off the rocks. We climbed up to La Vall Closa (Closed Valley, in Catalan). On the way up we were struck by the ruggedness of the terrain. We could see refuges on the slopes, old tin cans, empty shell casings, scraps of shrapnel, which over 60 years ago had turned this beautiful countryside into one of the bloodiest battles of the war. After climbing for 45 minutes we reached the monolith. Before us rested the monument, small, but large in so many ways. It stood before us, alone, lost among the pine trees that had watched over it, on a flat spot some 60 feet across. It had deteriorated, but most of the names could still be read fairly clearly. About 40 percent of the

original surface had disappeared and several of the corners were missing. Inscribed on the monument were the names of many antifascist soldiers who had fallen in the fighting: Bob Merriman and Dave Doran, Niilo Makela of the Mac-Paps, lieutenant Juan Abada García of Valencia, Louis Clives, of the British Battalion, and Mark Millan of Palestine. Next to the monolith we found a cement slab, totally destroyed, on which could be read the name of Egan Schmidt (Misha) of Letonia, whose name also appears on the monolith. We surmise that his men chose to make a separate homage to Misha, who had been their leader. It is dated August 19, 1938, the day he fell in battle in the Pandols. We decided to leave its restoration for a second excursion. At that moment all present held a memorial. Ernesto González read the following dedication: “We stand before this monument, built during the battle of the Ebro, in recognition of its historic importance, and in honor of the soldiers who died in battle and who wrote with their blood a page in Spanish history. In their honor and in honor of all those who fell during the Civil War, we lay here this wreath,

the XVth De Pandols that it may last throughout history.” A laurel wreath was then placed at the base of the monolith. From that point on our determination to reconstruct the monument was even greater. A race to secure appropriate authorization for restoration was initiated with the different official offices, from the Generalitat of Catalonia to the City Council of Pinell de Brai. (The monument is located in Pinell de Brai.) We received only silence for an answer, but we were determined to succeed. Finally, and just days before we began the restoration, we received authorization from the City Council of Pinell de Brai. We were anxious to begin work, and at last the time arrived: September 30 to October 1. A total of 16 people participated in the reconstruction. They came from Pinell de Brai, Gandesa, Corbera d’Ebre, Tarragona, Segur de Calafell, Benaguasil (Valencia), Sant Cugat del Valles, Torrelles de Llobregat, Barcelona, and Villafranca del Penedés. The weather was fine both days, though the first day the wind gusted strongly. We began by clearing the trail and marking it with red stripes. We placed a sign indicating the trailhead some 200 meters up the road, to avoid possible vandalism. We cleared the brush from around the monolith and trimmed the pines nearby. The “assault” began at 11 a.m. with the reconstruction of the crumbled retaining wall. This proved to be the most laborious task, for it had to be rebuilt from the foundation up. By 6 p.m. on September 30 the wall was reconstructed. We spent the next three hours cleaning the monolith of lichen and other incrustations, using five different types of brushes. In the evening those places where the cement was worn away were sealed with epoxy and then filled with new cement. Thus ended the first day.

The Names on the Monument to the XVth Brigade at Sierra de Pandols Jose Salvo, Barcelona James Cochrane, Canada Louis Clive, Great Britain Arnold Jack Reid, USA Emilio Sanchez, Valencia Walli Tapsell, Great Britain José Rausell, Toledo Fermin Vicens, Valencia Mark Millman, Palestine Nilio Makela, Canada Vicente Pelacay, Huesca Harri Swidorski, Canada Francisco Fernandez, Granada

Joe Bianca, who died on Hill 666

Morris Miller, Great Britain Efraim Guasch, Cuba

Robert Merriman, USA

Paulino Muñoz, Toledo

Egan Schmidt (Misha), Letonia

Francisco Garcia Martinez, Valencia

Matias Vanovan, Valencia

Jack Esteele, Canada

Angel Gomez, Barcelona

Vicente Joval, Lérida

Sol Rose, USA

Dave Doran, USA

Joakin Redon, Castellon

Dave Guest, Great Britain

Joe Bianca, USA

Pedro Martinez, Granada

Majin Nadal, Gerona

Phil Detro, USA

Francisco Rivelles, Granada

Jose Barba Garcia, Albacete

Juan M. Redondo, Granada

Harri Dobson, Great Britain

Juan Abad Garcia, Valencia James Codi, USA

Note: These are the names as written on the monument. They were written under adverse conditions in time of war and the spellings may be incorrect or inconsistent with the spelling in the text of the article.

I arrived the next day, having been unable to be there the first day. When I found myself in front of the monument I realized that there are places where one feels the weight of history, a crushing weight, for sure. But history is to be found where you would least expect it and in the humblest way, a way that sends a chill up your spine. It was a beautiful feeling

to be standing before something that I admired so greatly. But there was work to be done. We cleaned a nearby cistern, only a few steps away, which had been built several months before the battle by the great-grandfather of the owner of the property where the monument is Continued on page 16 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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Monolith Continued from page 15 located. The latter also participated in the restoration. We patched the surfaces in need of restoration with mortar and reconstructed the letters and words that were missing. At this stage we found an error in the transcribed names: it was not Pedro but Paulino Muñoz, revealed to us during the cleaning. On one side the cleaning uncovered part of an unfinished word, “ROS,” which we decided to leave as it was. But careful scrutiny of a photo in the possession of CEBE in Gandesa revealed the letter “A.” By deduction we were able to reconstruct the word “VENGAROS” (AVENGE YOU), which matches the right and left sides, which read “PROMETEMOS” (WE PROMISE), on the left, and “VENCEREMOS” (WE SHALL BE VICTORIOUS), on the right. We finished about 5 p.m. and decided to leave the restoration of the slab to Egan Schmidt for a sec ond round. As we hiked out, I recalled past conversations with IB veterans. I remembered their faces and the sincerity of their expressions, and I was overcome by the tears shining in their eyes as they spoke of Spain. Then I remembered a simple inscription on a monument to the British Volunteers who fought in the International Brigades in a small garden in Jubilee near the Thames in London: “They went because their eyes saw no other road.”

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We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to the City Council of Pinell de Brai, to the Center for the Study of the Battle of the Ebro (CEBE), to Jaume Escude of Gandesa, founding member of CEBE, to the Patronat del Poble Vell de Corbera d’Ebre, to the editorial staff of The Volunteer for publishing this article, and to all the members of the electronic list [email protected] who have made possible the restoration of the Monolith of the XV International Brigade in the Pandols. Long live of the XV International Brigade of the Republican Army! Viva La XV Brigada Internacional Del Ejercito Republicano!

Jesus Castillo

Preserving Ebro Battle Site Continued from page 13

Significance of Battle Stressed Perhaps the most important element of the project is the effort to reevaluate the battle. With few exceptions, the most recent of which is the new monument in Corbera d’Ebre, the memorials in place are from the Franco period, designed to glorify the rebel victory. Still other memorials, such as the one on Hill 705, facing Hill 666 and dedicated to the “Quinta del Biberón” (“the Baby-Bottle conscripts”)—young soldiers (“quintos”), aged 17, drafted by all forces at this stage of the conflict—attempt to exonerate both sides by claiming that “everyone lost” the war. WEB-E38 stresses that the battle should be interpreted for its true significance: it was the last full-scale military offensive of democracy against fascism before the North African campaigns of World War II. In addition, although many wish to gloss over the issue, there was a winner and a loser to the battle. Here, fascism defeated western democracy. This event opened the door to a greater war, more suffering across Europe and a dictatorial regime that lasted 40 years.

These two episodes, the volunteers who pushed a town council to allow a forgotten and abandoned monument to be restored and the initiative to preserve portions of the Ebro battlefield for posterity, are significant developments. Let’s hope that the restoration can spark public interest and fuel the preservation struggle. If the wind power project is finally approved over conservation, the monument will be rendered inaccessible at best, or at worst, will become just a memory. The “pilonet,” as it is known in Catalan, does not deserve to stand alone on an abandoned hill as the sole reminder of those who fought the good fight. Those interested in voicing their concern for the preservation of the Sierra Pandols and Cavalls should contact WEB-E38 via their website at www.ctv.es/USERS/montsant/WEB E38.htm Robert Coale is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

Chicago Correcting a Grave Injustice by Jeff Balch More than 70 guests packed a small dance studio on Chicago’s north side to attend the “Ed Balchowsky Gravestone Kick-Off Event” on November 5th, celebrating the life of the well-known and much-loved Lincoln Brigade veteran. The event, organized by Chicago Friends of the Lincoln Brigade and Balchowsky’s friends and family,

Chicago Friends of the Lincoln Brigade and Ed Balchowsky Committee. Standing (l-r): Peter Glazer, Utah Phillips, Brian Peterlinz, Stuart McCarrell; seated: Jeff Balch, Maple Balch, Bobby Hall, and Chuck Hall. Robeson’s 1937 visit to Spain. He lost his right hand and forearm during subsequent fighting, but made a name for himself in Chicago playing with just his left hand. Intimately familiar with Chicago’s neighborhood cafes and their downtrodden patrons, Balchowsky liked to call himself the “King of the Alleys.” In the words of author and oral historian Studs Terkel, he was “Chicago’s own Huck Finn.” Since early 1999 a total of more than $2200 has been raised, enough to pay for the larger plot and re-burial. Fundraising for the gravestone itself continues. Donations (make checks out to “CFLB”) can be sent to 1703 Cleveland Street, Evanston, Illinois 60202.

Utah Phillips (l) and vet Chuck Hall raised about $1000 toward the cost of reburying him with a proper marker. The event featured folksinger/storyteller/working class philosopher Utah Phillips, a close friend of Balchowsky’s. Audience members included veterans Chuck Hall and Al Weinerman and family members of deceased veterans Sid Harris and Sam Gibbon. Balchowsky, who died in 1989, was buried in a tiny unmarked grave near the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument at Forest Home (Waldheim) Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. A larger plot, also near the Haymarket Monument, has been reserved for him. Balchowsky was an accomplished artist and musician who accompanied Paul Robeson on piano during

Ed Balchowsky plays on THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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Ireland: Monuments to by Richard Bermack

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leven miles outside of Killarney on the road to Cork there is a turnoff to Kilgarven. About five miles down that windy country road is Morley’s Bridge. Before you cross the bridge, on the side of the mountain, is a small plaque honoring the International Brigade veteran Michael Lehane. Profound in its modesty, the stone plaque, next to two road signs, is integrated into the landscape symbolic of the way history is integrated into Irish culture. “We have to do some repairs on the letters,” the young man working on his cottage across the way tells me. “People come from all around to see it.” He comments about the pride his community feels in Lehane’s contribution to history, pride that someone from Morley’s Bridge, a rural community of perhaps 50 houses, traveled to Spain to participate in an international struggle. The young man points out the house where Lehane lived, about

Brigada.” Manus took us on a tour of the historical sites of Dublin, beginning with a plaque on the wall of the building where Manus works, Liberty Hall, the central labor council building in Dublin. The plaque is dedicated to those “Irshman who died in defense of the Spanish Republic in the Service of the International Brigades.” Then we crossed the street to where a prominent statue of James Connolly looks over the boulevard. Listed on a plaque as a contributor to the monu-

The house where Michael Lehane lived two houses down from the monument. He then suggests I visit the community historian:“Take the right turn in the road and then 1/4 mile to the house with the hedge.” We were directed to the monument by Manus O’Riordan, the son of IB vet Michael O’Riordan. Michael’s book on the Irish International Brigadiers, The Connolly Column (New Books, Dublin, 1979), is credited by Eamonn Furey with inspiring Christy Moores’s song “Vive La Quinte 18 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

Manus O’Riordan by the plaque to the International Brigade at Dublin’s Liberty Hall

The plaque to Michael Lehane, in Gaelic and in English: “Erected to the Memory of Michael Lehane a member of the International Spanish Brigade who gave his young life at sea that the underprivileged of all nations would enjoy a happy and prosperous existance.” After returning from Spain, Lehane was killed on a ship during World War II. ment is the Connolly Column of the International Brigades. Next we drove across town, making note of statues to the various labor leaders and heros of the Irish freedom struggle. At the Glasnevin Cemetery we visited the graves of Spanish Civil war vets buried in close proximity to the graves of Michael Collins and James Ryan. Finally Manus dropped us off at the historic Kilmainham Gaol, which has been converted to a museum of

the Connolly Column Web Site on French Concentration Camps Check out the following web site about the French concentration camps, Vernet, Gurs, and St. Cyprien, where French authorities interned Spanish refugees, IBs and foreign-born Jews who were unable to return home: http://www.cc-payssaverdun.fr/saverdun/pages/vernet/accueil 2.htm.

Monument to James Connolly funded in part by the Connolly Column of the International Brigades. the Irish revolution. The jail/museum, where many political prisoners were held and executed, now includes a multi-media presentation against capital punishment. There is a plaque next to the spot where the British brutally executed James Connolly, the leader of the Easter Rising. Connolly’s execution galvanized public support for the IRA and the rebellion that would end British rule in the south. The tour guide points out the graffiti above the exit of one of the cell blocks, “Beware of the risen people that have harried and held. Ye that have bullied and bribed.” We left Dublin realizing that history and struggle runs as deep in Irish culture as Guinness . Richard Bermack is the graphic designer and producer of The Volunteer. He is also an award-winning labor journalist and photographer.

Poet Martín Espada was also struck by how much history is part of Irish culture. While staying at a writers’ cottage on the Achill Island of County Mayo, in the west of Ireland, he was walking through the tiny rural village of Doogea, where he encountered a memorial to veteran Thomas Patten. Intrigued, Espada found the following account of Patten by historian Robert Stradling: “Patten was born in Dooega in 1910, one of fourteen children. Patten left Ireland as a teenager to work at a Guinness plant in London, where he got involved with the IRA. In October 1936, completely on his own, Patten went to Spain to fight for the Republican cause, enlisting in the Madrid militia. He was killed at Boadilla del Monte, during the siege of Madrid, in December 1936. The words he said to his brother before leaving for Spain were prophetic: ‘The bullet that will get me won’t get a Spanish worker.’” Martín Espada’s poem, “The Carpenter Swam to Spain,” about Abe Osheroff, was published in the Fall 1998 issue of The Volunteer.

THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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Join us in a cause that will never die

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ver two decades ago four veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade— Bill Susman, Leonard Lamb, Oscar Hunter and Morris Brier — created a new organization: ALBA, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, bringing in a group of scholars interested in the Spanish Civil War and the International Brigades. From the outset, one of ALBA’s main tasks was to help manage and expand the Spanish Civil War archive housed at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Explicit in this undertaking were the educational goals of preserving, disseminating and transmitting to future generations the history and lessons of the Spanish Civil War and of the International Brigades. To carry out these goals ALBA, in collaboration with VALB, publishes The Volunteer. ALBA also collaborates on the production of books, films and videos, maintains a website at www.alba-valb.org, helps send exhibitions of photographs, documents and artwork throughout the United States and Canada, and organizes conferences and seminars on the Spanish

Civil War and on the role of the International Brigades in that conflict and afterward. ALBA has established the George Watt Memorial prizes for the best college and graduate school essays on these subjects and has designed a widely-used Spanish Civil War high school and college curriculum. In the coming months and years ALBA will greatly expand its activity. To do so effectively ALBA must have your support. Please fill out the coupon below, enclose a $25 (or larger) check made out to ALBA, and send it to us. It will insure that those of you who are not veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, or family members of a veteran, will continue to receive The Volunteer and will enjoy other benefits of associate status. Fill out this coupon and send it to the address indicated below.

web site: www.alba-valb.org

Letters

Continued from page2

Dear Editor, Some years ago while a patient at the City of Hope in CA I met Charles Roth, who was a member of the ALB. The patients at that time published a magazine to which Chuck contributed two articles about his experiences in Spain. Recently I saw the exhibit on the Spanish Civil War at the U of Judaism in LA. This brought back memories of Chuck, whom I haven't seen in many years.Would ALBA know what happened to him? Also, would they be interested in the articles he wrote? Sincerely, phil kornstein [email protected]

❑ Yes, I wish to become an ALBA Associate, and I enclose a check for $25 made out to ALBA. Please send me The Volunteer.

❑ I would also like to receive a list of books, pamphlets and videos available at a discount.

❑ I would like to have ALBA’s poster exhibit, Shouts from the Wall, in my locality. Please send information.

❑ I would like to have ALBA’s photo exhibit, The Aura of the Cause, in my locality. Please send information. Name _______________________________________________________________ Address _____________________________________________________________ City___________________________ State _____________ Zip ________________ I enclose an additional donation of ____________. I wish ❑ do not wish ❑ to have this donation acknowledged in The Volunteer. Please mail to: ALBA, 799 Broadway, Room 227, New York, NY 10003

20 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

Dear Editor, Does anyone have knowledge of Charlie Donnelly, the Irish poet who was a member of the XV International Brigade (Connolly Column) and was killed at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937? He was famous for the line “Even the olives are bleeding.” For years historians, poets and others in Ireland have been searching for his lost poetry. He may have had some poems with him when he was killed. Can we help them? Salud Martín Espada 24 Hickory Lane Amherst, MA 01002hank you. [email protected]

ALBA BOOKS, VIDEOS AND POSTERS

ALBA Books and Publications are now available on line: www.alba-valb.org or mail order from Cody’s Books. The following publications are no longer available from the ALBA office but can be purchased from Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California, by mail order (1-800-995-1180) or through the ALBA website by clicking on bookstore.

BOOKS ABOUT THE LINCOLN BRIGADE Madrid 1937 — Letters from the Spanish Civil War ed. by Nelson & Hendricks Another Hill by Milton Wolff Spain’s Cause Was Mine by Hank Rubin Comrades by Harry Fisher Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade by Peter Carroll

EXHIBIT CATALOGS Shouts from the Wall, a poster album ed. by Cary Nelson The Aura of the Cause, a photo album ed. by Cary Nelson

The following are also available at Cody’s along with many other books on the Spanish Civil War. Our Fight— Writings by Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Spain 1936-1939 ed. by Alvah Bessie & Albert Prago The Anti-Warrior by Milton Felsen Trees Become Torches, Selected Poems by Edwin Rolfe Collected Poems of Edwin Rolfe From Mississippi to Madrid by James Yates On the American Dead in Spain: Hemingway’s VALB Eulogy by Ernest Hemingway, Cary Nelson and Milton Wolff Prison of Women by Tomas Cuevas

VIDEOS Art in the Struggle for Freedom by Abe Osheroff Dreams and Nightmares by Abe Osheroff The Good Fight a film by Sills/Dore/Bruckner Forever Activists a film by Judith Montell You Are History, You Are Legend a film by Judith Montell

POSTERS Two Spanish Civil War posters (Madrid Lion and Victoria) are available at $10 plus postage.

Visit the ALBA web site at www.alba-valb.org and subscribe to ALBA’s new email newsletter, Shouts From the Wall. THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

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Added to Memory’s Roster ARTHUR MUNDAY 1915 - 2000 Art Munday died in January. He was 75 years old. Art fought in many battles in Spain and was wounded five times. Each time he recovered he went back to the battalion and fought another battle. He was first assigned to the 20th battalion that went south to halt the fascist advance from Seville at Cordoba. Next he was with the Lincolns at Quinto and Belchite. During the retreats he was a section leader and was wounded twice. In the crossing of the Ebro he was wounded on the Villalba-Gandesa road. Ben Holtzman helped pull him to safety. During World War II, Art was a commander of the first U.S. troops to

Arthur Munday

reach the Mauthausen concentration camp. Their orders were to liberate the camps and move on quickly. Two Nazis in a guard tower refused to come down and were shot. Eight more Germans came forward and surrendered. His daughter, Patricia, remembers him saying: “No words can relay the conditions of the prisoners in the camp.” Her father, she continued, “a real tough guy from Hells Kitchen, would get tears in his eyes when he spoke about that day. The knowledge that large numbers of Spanish Republicans were imprisoned there gave greater meaning to this act of liberation.” Back in civilian life, Art worked at many trades, the last as a charter captain out of Montauk Point at the tip of Long Island. Throughout the years he continued to actively support the activities of VALB. We shall miss him.

—Moe Fishman

ALBA’S TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

SHOUTS FROM THE WALL Medford, MA October 12-Dec 10, 2000 Tufts University Gallery Aidekman Art Center 40 R Talbot Ave. Medford, MA 02155 617 627-3505

Riverside, CA March 15, 2001-April 30, 2001 Sweeney Art Gallery University of California Riverside CA 92521 For information contact Katherine Warren at 909-787-3755

THE AURA OF THE CAUSE ALBA’s photographic exhibit,The Aura of the Cause, has been shown at the Puffin Room in New York City, the University of California-San Diego, the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, the Fonda Del Sol Visual Center in Washington, DC, and the University of Illinois. This exhibit, curated by Professor Cary Nelson of the University of Illinois, consists of hundreds of photographs of the Lincoln Brigaders, other international volunteers and their Spanish comrades, in training and at rest, among the Spanish villages and in battle.

Medford, MA October 12-Dec 10, 2000 Tufts University Gallery Aidekman Art Center 40 R Talbot Ave. Medford, MA 02155 617 627-3505 For further information about The Aura of the Cause exhibit, and its companion exhibit, Shouts From The Wall, posters from the Spanish Civil War, contact ALBA’s executive secretary, Diane Fraher, 212-598-0968. Both exhibits are available for museum and art gallery showings.

BRING THESE EXHIBITS TO YOUR LOCALITY Contact Diane Fraher, ALBA executive secretary: 212-598-0968; Fax: 212-529-4603 22 THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 2000

Contributions Ramona Memmer in memory of Betty Marion, $75 Ruth Pappa in memory of Irving Weissman, $10 Earl Harju in memory of Al Gottlieb, $100 Sadie F. Klein, $20 Fay Leviton in memory of Sam Gonshak, $25 Phil Kaplan, $25 Sylvia P. Morro in memory of Joe Gordon, $25 Arky & George Markham in memory of Marcus Alper, $100 Richard Hershcope in honor of Clarence Kailin, $20 Gabriel Falsetta, $10 Malvina Douglas in memory of Ben Goldring, $200 Philip Pastan in memory of Marcus Alper, $100 Herman Snyder & Thelma Newton in memory of Marcus Alper, $25 Helen S. Mushlin in memory of Marcus Alper, $5 Harriett & Jack Turner in memory of Marcus Alper, $50 Thelma Mielke in memory of Enmorada Questa, $50 Irving Rappoport in memory of Yale Stuart and John Tisa, $90 Hilda & Leo Lang in honor of Leslie Kish, $90 James E. Maraniss, $100 Jeanne Olson in memory of Leonard Olson, $25 Jiri Horsky (Czech IB veteran) in memory of Sam Gonshak, $25 Nina Friedberg in memory of Saul Friedberg, $100

An invitation for posterity

T

he Volunteer invites our readers to consider making a bequest to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. ALBA is a non-profit tax-exempt organization. Contributions and bequests provide donors with significant advantages in planning their estates and donations. For more information, contact Diane Fraher executive secretary VALB/ALBA 799 Broadway, Rm. 277 New York, NY 10003 Telephone: 212-598-0968 E-mail: [email protected]

Sam Walters: The Spirit Lives The Puffin Foundation Ltd will be exhibiting the photographic show The Spirit Lives at the Palacio De Las Artes in Buenos Aires from December 14, 2000, to January 19, 2001. Curated by Carl Rosenstein, the exhibit contains 34 images from the archives of the Institute for Social Research in Holland and 11 images by the late Lincoln vet Sam Walters. These works focus on the “Barcelona Revolution,” the role of anarchist trade unions and militias, the role of women, and the solidarity of the International volunteers. The exhibit appeared in New York’s Puffin Room in 1998.

THE VOLUNTEER, Fall 1999 23

Ralph Fasanella Calendar 2001

“Family Supper,” one of the paintings by Lincoln vet Ralph Fasanella.

The Volunteer c/o Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives 799 Broadway, Rm. 227 New York, NY 10003

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An attractive, full-color calendar for the year 2001, reproducing 12 paintings by Lincoln vet Ralph Fasanella, is now available from the Bread and Roses Cultural Project of 1199/SEIU! Fasanella, who died in 1998, was one of America’s most important worker-artists. His themes—work and workers’ dignity—reflect his lifelong involvement in the labor movement. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the calendar “represents a significant contribution to our movement and helps get our message to the public.” The calendar is available for $12.95 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. Make checks payable to: 1199/SEIU’s Bread and Roses Cultural Project 330 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10036 For more information call Bread and Roses at 212.603.1186.

NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 280 SHIRLEY, N.Y. 11967